The scaling of fish has long been acknowledged as a distasteful undertaking by many fisherman. The usual procedure is to grasp the tail of the fish with one hand with the catch resting on a flat surface, the carcass is scrapted with a knife from tail to head to flake off the covering of scales. Usually the scales snap loose in a shower of particles which soon covers the hands and the area surrounding the operation. Subsequent clean up of the loosened scales is a very tedious job that is made more distasteful by the fish odor which is carried by the scales and is transferred to the body of the person performing the scaling operation.
Many devices have been devised in an effort to facilitate scaling of fish quickly, easily and with a minimum of mess. One such device consists of a handle having means at one end which is adapted to be placed on the tail of the specimen to hold it firmly on a suitable supporting surface. A rake like scaling means is affixed to the handle for sliding motion. When the rake like member is advanced toward the tail of the specimen the handle is lifted to bring the rake-like means out of contact with the specimen until it is in its foremost position against the hold down means. The handle is then lowered to bring the rake-like scaling means into contact with the specimen and operated away from the hold down means to loosen the scales from the specimen's flesh. This is a very cumbersome operation and the purpose of the present invention is to improve the prior art device both as to ease of operation and effectiveness of function.